An Pluiméir Ceolmhar - about our martial music: depends on which times or countries the marches are coming from. When brass was the prerogative of the cavalry (The Brave And Dumb), the infantry only used fifes, drums and woodwinds. Its a big difference between the brass version and the original woodwind version, when you hear e.g. Beethoven's march for General Yorck - sometimes sounding like a dance. The Prussian marches are really music for blockheads, while the marches of Southern Germany (Bavaria, Hassia) are much lighter and more lively. There even is a march using dances originally composed by Johannes Strauss! In my division's march even a folksong was worked in.
The melodious subtleness is especially displayed by our military bands when performing in concerts (they sometimes use strings); when playing on parade they use simpler marches with more bangs so that the marching troops don't fall out of cadence.
An old German military saying: The melody is for the commissioned officers, the drum is for the grunts - boom is always left foot.

Wilfried